I know this isn’t the most exciting stuff to read about, but it can tell you a lot about the RV industry. Some of it you can certainly leverage if you are looking to purchase an RV. In a struggling market, there is always a buying opportunity.

October Shipment numbers from the RVIA.Org web site are in, and just like last month it continues to be stagnant news if not slightly negative news, except maybe for Fifth Wheels and Truck Campers.

As always let me start by saying that the RVIA is comparing their “growth rate”, only to 2024, which wasn’t a great year.  It would be better if they used a running five-year average as a comparison, excluding the covid years. 

Right now, for all RV shipments for the year, they are at 297,477 Units Shipped. That puts shipments at 3.6% over 2024 so far this year.

Let’s break down the October numbers:

In October Travel Trailer Shipments were down again, this time dropping to -9% over October of 2024.  If you remember last month, they were down 4.4%. For the year they are now in negative territory at -.5%.  Again, that’s comparing to the bad year 2024. This has been a bleak year for Travel Trailers.  As I’ve said before, I’ve never seen a year like this for travel trailers.

October Fifth Wheels were up 24.9% over October of 2024.  Down from last month’s gain of 29.1% over September of 2024. Total shipments were 6198, which is up about 1085 units from last month’s shipments.  YTD compared to 2024 they’ve moved up to 21.2%.

Pop-up Campers moved into negative territory this month at-15.8% and YTD when compared to 2024, they are down -2.8%. 

Truck Campers had that unexplainable positive wild swing last month of 72.9%.  This month they are up again at 34.8% over October of 2024. Again, I’m not sure what’s happening in that category.  These last two month has put the truck campers at 26.7% positive for the YTD numbers. Just like pop up campers the number of shipments in this category is so small (just 368 this month) it hardly takes any increase or decrease to make it look like a huge swing.  That being said, something positive is definitely happening in this category.  This is two months in a row where some really big numbers for truck campers are being generated.

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about Motorhomes, but A’s and C’s were up when compared to October of 2024.  Type A’s up 15.9%, and type C’s up 21.8%.  Type Bs, the Van Campers were in negative territory when compared to October of 2024 at -8.8%.

However, for the year, A’s are barely positive at 3.2%, and B’s are diving deeper into negative territory at -1.4% and C’s are at 5.7%.  Overall, the motorhome market has now dropped to only 3.6% over 2024.

Again, the motorhome situation is a bit like Fifth wheels, truck campers and popups. There are not a lot shipped so a modest swing results in a big percentage shift.

Overall, when comparing October of 2025 to October of 2024, there were 352 less shipments this October.  Even though the RVIA CEO states “This latest shipment report shows that overall, the RV industry continues to make moderate, steady gains for the year and we are on track to surpass last year’s shipment totals,”

Well, the report doesn’t really reflect that, although we do have November and December to get through.  However, are November and December great months for selling RV’s?– probably not.

So, I don’t think this month’s report is great news for the RV industry.  The problem here is that the bread and butter of the RV industry, Travel Trailers, are trending downwards.  Travel Trailers are the most popular RV manufactured. When, Travel Trailers bottom out, that’s not good news for the RV industry at all. Keep in mind, shipments mean nothing as far as sales.

The more reliable indicator is RV registrations compared to last year,( again 2024 was not a great year) and those registrations are now down 4%, according to New Trader Insights. This leads to higher than desired levels at the Dealers.  Again, it also a reflection that the industry is not doing well.

So, this may be a buyers’ market for travel trailers, pop up campers, and Class B Camper Vans, since those categories are struggling.  Just a thought.

Until next time Happy Camping!

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That might sound great with 333,733 total RV shipments in 2024. However, as I have previously mentioned, 2023 was a horrible year with shipments of 313,174. – so, 6% over 2023 really isn’t saying anything at all.

To get an overall perspective of what those numbers mean, let’s make a comparison. We will compare the 2024 Year End Numbers to 2019 (pre covid). I don’t want to use covid numbers because they are so inflated and not indicative of the real market.

In 2019 the year end numbers for towables were 359,441. Year end for towables in 2024 are 298,842. The RV industry is operating at a 20% reduction in shipments in 2024 compared to pre-covid numbers. The numbers are almost the same for the motorhomes with a loss of 25% when compared to 2019 numbers.

I want to mention that 2019 had suffered a 16% loss when compared to the year end numbers for 2018. So, I think using 2019 numbers certainly isn’t inflating their loss. In fact, 2017 total shipments were 504,599 and 2016 numbers were 430,691. So, this means that the 2024 numbers are certainly nothing to write home about.

For the fun of it, I took the last nine years of shipments (including covid numbers) and the average number of shipments per year is 443,984. Only four of the last nine years were sales larger than that number. You would think that number is only high due to the covid sales boom where 2021 and 2022 shipments were 600,240 and 493,268 respectively. However, believe it or not, if I just take the five years before covid, the average number of yearly shipments actually goes up to 451,088. Thats how bleak the last two years have been!

So that tells me there is more going on here than meets the eye!

So, what does this tell us about the state of the RV industry right now? I think it says that they are in trouble. But, let’s hear what the RVIA had to say:

“Despite challenges, the RV industry showed resilience and an upward trajectory in 2024, AND continued to demonstrate its BROAD appeal to consumers,” said RV Industry Association President and CEO Craig Kirby. “These modest gains provide a solid foundation to build upon, and we are confident that with continued innovation and dedication to customer satisfaction, the RV industry will see even greater success in 2025.” 

Saying that they have had modest gains is really gaslighting folks that won’t look back beyond 2023.

It’s interesting that the lobbying group for the RV industry speaks about innovation and dedication to customer satisfaction. My opinion is that they have enabled the RV industry to achieve these low numbers through keeping standards low. But what do I know.

If you want customer satisfaction in the RV industry start building them to residential standards. The plumbing and wiring that exists in RV’s in for the most part a joke. Now, couple that with all the press on frame flex or whatever the new buzz word for it is, plus a NHTSA investigation, and you can see why anyone would be afraid to buy an RV. I think that’s why the industry is down over 100,000 units per year over the last two years.

I will say this, things were better for the consumers when the RV industry had competition. Look at all the RV manufacturers that got gobbled up into the “Big 3” since 2008. I would gladly put my old Jayco Jaywren, Mallard Sprint, Fleetwood Prowler, Coachmen Captiva, or RVision Trail Cruiser, up against anything being produced today from a quality perspective.

Anyway, that’s my update just looking at the numbers. I’m positive that other folks have different interpretations about the industry, where it’s headed, and why.

Anyway, this is just food for thought – and by the way, I’m still optimistic that change could be coming.

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